New Bill Targets Permit Gridlock Crushing Local Restaurants

SACRAMENTO, CA — Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) has introduced new legislation to help California restaurants cut through costly red tape and avoid closure due to outdated permitting rules. Assembly Bill 1470, known as the Restaurant Recovery Act, updates the state’s food facility laws to make it easier and faster for small and independent restaurants to renovate, reopen, and grow without compromising public health.

California’s restaurant industry was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 30,000 restaurants shut their doors permanently, and countless others are still struggling with inflation, labor shortages, and skyrocketing costs. Outdated permitting rules are only making things worse — delaying renovations, blocking innovation, and leaving storefronts empty. The burden falls hardest on small business owners who can’t afford to navigate an expensive and confusing regulatory maze.

“Our restaurants are doing everything they can to stay open, hire back workers, and serve their communities, but outdated rules are holding them back,” said Assemblymember Haney, Chair of the Committee on Downtown Recovery. “We need to give California’s small restaurant owners and local entrepreneurs the green light to open safely without the unnecessary and expensive mandates that make opening and operating a restaurant nearly impossible.”

Under current law, restaurant owners face costly mandates that do little to improve public safety. For example, California still bans above-ground grease traps in food prep areas — a safe, industry-standard solution — forcing small businesses to install expensive underground systems. Other outdated rules restrict the size of takeout windows, enforce rigid interior finish requirements in low-risk areas like restrooms and bars, and create costly barriers for temporary food vendors.

Eddie Navarrette, Executive Director of the Independent Hospitality Coalition, has seen these challenges up close.

“Thousands of California restaurateurs have found themselves in the same heart-wrenching moment standing inside their future small businesses being told that a long list of questionable requirements will need to be inserted into their space. It’s time that the state removes red tape and actually bolsters the entrepreneurs who make up the backbone of our economy and embody the spirit of the California dream.”

AB 1470 (The Restaurant Recovery Act) will:

• Allow above-ground grease traps in food prep areas when safe and appropriate alternatives to underground systems.
• Permit larger and more flexible pass-through windows for takeout service when food safety standards are met.
• Clarify that employee restrooms and bar areas do not require the same interior finishes as food prep areas.
• Reduce overhead covering requirements for temporary food facilities when there is no contamination risk.

“This bill is about common sense. We’re not weakening health protections, we’re cutting outdated rules that make no sense in 2025,” Haney said. “If we want to keep our restaurant industry alive, we need to stop forcing them to play by a rulebook written decades ago.”

AB 1470 is backed by a growing coalition of restaurant owners, hospitality leaders, and small business advocates. There is currently no registered opposition to the bill. Assembly Bill 1470 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee later this summer.